Will Grandeur Be Sailing out of Barbardos in 2022 ?

[EatonDoolittle]

Just booked the 14 day as a backup in case my B2B on Celebrity in Feb 2022 cancels. For a balcony cabin, the diff between refundable and NRD is about $1100.

 

That one's on one of their older M class ships, and there is a lot of gloom and doom over on the Celebrity board about it probably being sold off soon to Pulmantur  

[Cigar King]

We're thinking about it, but, the flights are terrible for us.

[Ourusualbeach]

37 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

Even if you ARE in the eastern half of the US !  There is only 1 non-stop flight out of Miami on AA.  The rest of the flights go through Charlotte and are 20+ hours !  So you know the flights are going to  fill up FAST.  I will book my air the same day the flights go on the market.  Who knows....maybe by next year they will increase the capacity.

The number of flights will be increased as well as more cities added.  Royal has secured space with several major carriers and will be offering direct flights from about 8 eastern seaboard ports as well as Toronto and 2 from the UK.  The carriers will be increasing and adding flights.

 

Also within the next month to two air availability on AIR 2 SEA will show through to the end of April which is more than 11 months out.

 

They also announced that they have partnered with several hotels to offer a cruise and stay package

[Ourusualbeach]

39 minutes ago, Pratique said:

Next winter is far off and things could and hopefully will change. Currently Barbados requires 3-7 day confinement at the hotel depending on when test results are available. Best case they will allow arriving passengers to be taken directly from the airport or hotel to the ship. But no way to enjoy the island before or after the cruise. And that's just for Barbados.

Right now Royal has partnered with several hotels and will be offering cruise and stay packages.  Things could change but this is a year away

[Ronaldo807]

Just now, Ourusualbeach said:

Right now Royal has partnered with several hotels and will be offering cruise and stay packages.  Things could change but this is a year away

Ken,

 

Any insight as to the 12/26 sailing? I don't see anything listed on the website and I can't imagine they would just take a week off.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Ken,

 

Any insight as to the 12/26 sailing? I don't see anything listed on the website and I can't imagine they would just take a week off.

No insight but they still may be finalizing the itinerary with holidays being involved

[RFerrington]

16 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The number of flights will be increased as well as more cities added.  Royal has secured space with several major carriers and will be offering direct flights from about 8 eastern seaboard ports as well as Toronto and 2 from the UK.  The carriers will be increasing and adding flights.

 

Also within the next month to two air availability on AIR 2 SEA will show through to the end of April which is more than 11 months out.

 

They also announced that they have partnered with several hotels to offer a cruise and stay package

That must have been what the Agent was talking about when she said that she could help me with airline and hotel bookings.  I didn't realize that she had access to info that I did not have !  I cannot use A2S for the air though, b/c I have to use some AA credit vouchers that I need to use.  Thanks for the info though !

Edited January 13, 2021 by RFerrington

[Ourusualbeach]

6 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

That must have been what the Agent was talking about when she said that she could help me with airline and hotel bookings.  I didn't realize that she had access to info that I did not have !  I cannot use A2S for the air though, b/c I have to use some AA credit vouchers that I need to use.  Thanks for the info though !

At least the good thing is that the number of flights will be expanded.  More flights from Miami.

[RFerrington]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

At least the good thing is that the number of flights will be expanded.  More flights from Miami.

That is VERY good news to me.  We will be getting off Symphony on 2-19 and then have to get onto GR on 2-20.  I would much rather hop right on a plane and head to Barbados when we get off of SY but right now there is only 1, early morning flight to Barbados out of MIA.  Hopefully they will add something later in the day that we will be able to use.  Thanks so  much for the good information, Ken !

[Tree_skier]

24 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

At least the good thing is that the number of flights will be expanded.  More flights from Miami.

Any flights from the west coast?

[kastke]

1 hour ago, Cigar King said:

We're thinking about it, but, the flights are terrible for us.

Presuming you are still traveling from IL, we have seen the same issue with flights to Barbados in the past.  I love these new itineraries, but I won’t book a flight that connects through Canada, having to go through customs after the first leg of the flight. I’m looking forward to seeing more feasible connection opportunities. 

[Trekker954]

In my humble opinion, they will be sailing out of Barbados to avoid complying with CDC policies, so as much as I miss sailing, and have even gotten vaccinated, I'm not playing this game with them.   I will wait until they are taking the right policies that measure up to CDC standards.   but I can almost guarantee all the other cruiselines will follow Royal over to Barbados

[RFerrington]

Holy cow !  I booked my 2 BR GS on the 14 night 20 Feb. Grandeur less than 2 hours ago for $6766.42.  There is 1, 2 BR GS left and it is going for $10,712.42 and that includes a military discount and a full balcony discount !!  

[Cigar King]

1 hour ago, kastke said:

Presuming you are still traveling from IL, we have seen the same issue with flights to Barbados in the past.  

Yes.  FWIW, the best one for us connected in Miami.  I was thinking that if I were to do it now, I'd put an extra day or two on each end in Miami to break the trip up.  Hopefully some better options will open up as the ports look great.

[Ourusualbeach]

2 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

Any flights from the west coast?

I didn’t see any.  Look# like there are enough cities on the east coast that hopefully you could find a direct flight then make i5 in only one stop. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, kastke said:

Presuming you are still traveling from IL, we have seen the same issue with flights to Barbados in the past.  I love these new itineraries, but I won’t book a flight that connects through Canada, having to go through customs after the first leg of the flight. I’m looking forward to seeing more feasible connection opportunities. 

Direct flights from New New York, New Jersey and Washington are some of the cities that I remember. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, Trekker954 said:

In my humble opinion, they will be sailing out of Barbados to avoid complying with CDC policies, so as much as I miss sailing, and have even gotten vaccinated, I'm not playing this game with them.   I will wait until they are taking the right policies that measure up to CDC standards.   but I can almost guarantee all the other cruiselines will follow Royal over to Barbados

Sorry but I don’t see that as a reason.  One of the smallest ships in the fleet sailing out of a foreign country just to skirt some rules will not save the company if restrictions last this long. 

[njkruzer]

19 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Sorry but I don’t see that as a reason.  One of the smallest ships in the fleet sailing out of a foreign country just to skirt some rules will not save the company if restrictions last this long. 

Hopefully by 2022 things will be better as to covid.   As I said, if no US ports, the visa requirements are different.   Some Europeans, and others, could fly there without stopping in the US.  Created various problems when they tried it with the Legend out of the Dominican Republic. 

[Ourusualbeach]

Here are the cities that will be offering direct flights to Barbados as well as the Hotels that Royal has partnered with offering 2-7 night stays.

 

Departure  time in Barbados is not until 10pm allowing for later flights and more time for connections.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Ourusualbeach

[Coralc]

They are ignoring the west coast again.  I looked at a few flights to Barbados, they aren't really outrageous in price, but long flights both ways. But we are already booked for February, so maybe something else will come up in the future. I think 2021-early 2022 we will stay with US departures until things smooth out. 

Edited January 14, 2021 by Coralc

[Tree_skier]

19 minutes ago, Coralc said:

They are ignoring the west coast again.  I looked at a few flights to Barbados, they aren't really outrageous in price, but long flights both ways. But we are already booked for February, so maybe something else will come up in the future. I think 2021-early 2022 we will stay with US departures until things smooth out. 

Yeah I looked at prices for various dates and the prices are higher than I would normally pay for a US flight and we are booked for Feb 22 already.  I liked the itineraries but will probably hold off.

 

 

[Sunshine3601]

I absolutely love these itineraries, great prices and we love Barbados.  American airlines isnt offering pricing that far out yet but the pricing up to mid dec 2021 is very similiar to what we pay for a flight to FL.

I think I will just have to book a b2b since his BD cruise just got cancelled.  No excuse for no bd next year!!

[Vera/Lee]

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Here are the cities that will be offering direct flights to Barbados as well as the Hotels that Royal has partnered with offering 2-7 night stays.

 

Departure  time in Barbados is not until 10pm allowing for later flights and more time for connections.

Thanks for this information! I'm thinking about booking the 14 night, but concerned about the cost of the flight from Atl. I wonder if a direct flight from Charlotte would be a lot less. Any guess?

[Tall-Cruiser]

5 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Sorry but I don’t see that as a reason.  One of the smallest ships in the fleet sailing out of a foreign country just to skirt some rules will not save the company if restrictions last this long. 

 

6 hours ago, Trekker954 said:

In my humble opinion, they will be sailing out of Barbados to avoid complying with CDC policies, so as much as I miss sailing, and have even gotten vaccinated, I'm not playing this game with them.   I will wait until they are taking the right policies that measure up to CDC standards.   but I can almost guarantee all the other cruiselines will follow Royal over to Barbados

I tend to agree with Ken on this one. I would speculate that one reason could be that Barbados was very very helpful to the Cruise Lines during the peak of the pandemic with the repatriation of crew and allowing ships to dock. I recall an Aida ship Captain that was very thankful for how Barbados helped them while other ports denied them entry. IMO, I am happy for them that Cruise Lines are rewarding them for their help during some very difficult times. 
Also, the itineraries look great. 

[DAllenTCY]

Barbados was the destination for Celebrity Millennium and Celebrity Eclipse crews from California last spring via chartered air. 

 

Some 737s from San Diego stopped in Miami but 777 charters were nonstop from Los Angeles.

 

Crew were not allowed on commercial airliners.  As far as I know, the only meals they received were provided from the ship.  

 

I would like someday to hear feedback from the crew.  The transfers were not very pleasant in many cases.  Some spent 3-4 hours in the pier, another few hours on the bus, and many hours in flight.

 

 

David

 

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by DAllenTCY